


Marco (Polo)

by RichardGanseyIII



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cats, Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Get ready for fluff and fluffy cats! yay!, Lesbian Character, No Lesbians Die, Pharmercy, Young Angela "Mercy" Ziegler, Young Fareeha "Pharah" Amari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 14:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichardGanseyIII/pseuds/RichardGanseyIII
Summary: When Fareeha Amari is woken up by footsteps in the middle of the night, her new neighbor desperately trying to find her cat is not what she'd expected to see. Still, she's happy to help.Inspired by a 'Person A lost their cat named 'Marco' and person B keeps replying 'Polo' when they try to look for him.'-prompt I saw on Tumblr.





	Marco (Polo)

It took Fareeha a while to identify what had woken her up. A soft, barely audible rustling sound erased the last traces of sleep in her body. She’d only just moved into this apartment and it could just be the sounds of the building itself, but she wasn’t the type to take any risks with that.  
There it was again, louder this time. Fareeha was now certain she was hearing footsteps creaking on the floor outside her door.

Her window was open to let the fresh air in and a light breeze stroked past her. The sky was varying shades of grey, sunlight already filtering though the dense blanket of clouds. A little late for break-ins. Still, it wasn’t impossible. Her hand slowly reached for the baseball bat that was always standing guard next to her bed. The bed made creaking noises as she stood up and moved towards the door. The footsteps were now loud and clear. They seemed to be shuffling around, hesitant almost.

The baseball bat felt heavy in her hand, her fingers clasped around the hard wood. She swung open the door and almost tripped over the dark figure that was crouching in her doorway. A loud shrieking broke the silence as the figure jumped upright and revealed themselves to be a young woman, dressed in nothing more than a pair of old pajamas.

The baseball bat, luckily not having harmed anyone, hung still in Pharah’s hands. Her eyebrows were raised high and her mouth hung open in silent confusion.

‘Wha-‘

‘Sorry!’ exclaimed the stranger. She held up her hands in a disarming pose and quickly took a few steps back. A nervous smile pulled the corner of her lips up as she glanced at the bat. 

‘I swear I’m not a robber,’ she said, extending a hand. ‘I’m the one who moved into the apartment next-doors a few days ago. Angela Ziegler? I don’t think we’ve met before.’ 

Fareeha had to stifle a laugh at the bizarre situation. She switched the bat to her left hand and shook Angela’s hand. She was momentarily caught by surprise by how firm her handshake was. 

‘Nice to meet you, I’m Fareeha Amari.’ she said with an eyebrow raised. ‘Can I please ask what you’re doing on my doorstep in the middle of the night?’

A worried look suddenly clouded Angela’s face. ‘Marco…’ she mumbled. She crouched down again and looked behind her, at the stairs leading down to the floor below. Pharah frowned. ‘Marco?’ she repeated. Angela seemed to have forgotten about her existence entirely for a second. Surprise was apparent on her face when she turned around at the sound of her voice.

‘Huh? Oh! Marco is my cat. He’s normally too lazy to move more than 3 centimeters to his food bowl, but now…’ She ran her hand through her hair and stood up. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere, but I can’t find him.’

Fareeha nodded and opened the door behind her. She threw the baseball bat on her couch in an elegant arc and stepped outside her apartment. ‘Okay, I’ll help you find him. What’s he look like?’

‘He’s incredibly fluffy! Like really, just one big ball of orange fluff. Also kind of fat but I still think he’s beautiful. And he’s got a really cute pink nose.’

This time she couldn’t fully suppress her laugh. ‘So basically, an orange, fat cat with a pink nose. Kind of a vague description, but don’t worry about it! We’ll find him.’ Angela smiled again, but her mind was too preoccupied with her missing cat to really make the smile a convincing one.

It was surprisingly cold outside for this time of year. Angela didn’t seem to notice, but Fareeha did see the hairs on her skin rising in protest of the icy morning air. ‘Here, take my jacket.’ she said, elegantly sliding it off her shoulders and offering it to Angela with a playful bow.

She looked up with wide eyes, a confused look on her face. ‘Oh? Uh, yeah! Thank you!’ She wrapped the jacket around her shoulders and smiled. Suddenly, Fareeha forgot all about the cold that now surrounded her. Softly coughing to hide her embarrassment, she crouched by the flower garden of the house next-doors. Roughly ruffling through the leaves and accidentally showering herself with flower petals, she looked for a glimpse of orange. The stones felt hard and damp beneath her knees, but she didn’t mind.

‘Marco!’ Angela tried to yell quietly to not wake the whole neighborhood up, but her voice still had an angry sense of urgency to it.  
‘Polo!’ Fareeha instantly replied, her brain standing on autopilot thanks to the early hour. Barely realizing what she’d said, she turned around at the sound of muffled laughter. ‘Fareeha! This is serious!’ Her smile and the subtle shine in her eyes contradicted her angry tone, though. ‘Sorry…,’ she answered, barely holding in her own laughter. She looked away, a strand of hair falling in front of her eyes.  
‘Hmmm, it’s no problem.’ she said softly. 

An unexpected raindrop dripped down her neck and into her shirt. Sharply breathing in, she looked up at the sky. Raindrops started to fall down in a steady, rapid rhythm, forming abstract patterns on the streetstones. Angela sighed and pulled Fareeha’s jacket up to cover her hair. She stood still, letting the rain drip onto her face and arms. Fareeha stood up slowly and glanced at her surroundings. No cat to be seen. 

‘I think we’d better head inside. Marco is probably hiding from the rain right now.’ Angela didn’t move. ‘I’m sorry to have dragged you out into the rain at this hour.’ She slid out of the jacket and extended her arm to give it back to its original owner. The drizzle had transformed into real rain now, immediately drenching her pajamas. It really wasn’t the right hour to be cat hunting out in the freezing cold, but judging by the look on her face, Angela wasn’t going to give up anytime soon.

Fareeha took the jacket in her hands and stepped closer to her. She gently wrapped the jacket over her shoulders. Angela looked into her eyes, seeing the tired lines beneath them, but also their warm expression. Her hands felt firm and strong on her shoulders. 

Amari shook her head and laughed, her wet hair swaying into her face, a few dark strands sticking to her cheeks and nose. ‘Nah, I’m staying here with you. I’m not the type of person who would just let their neighbour stand all alone in the pouring rain at three am, don’t you worry. Well then,’ she said, her strikingly white teeth still showing in a wide smile, ‘let’s find that cat!’

Angela returned the smile and excitedly held the jacket with both hands. ‘Thank you!’  
They continued searching with renewed energy until Fareeha suddenly picked up a quiet, barely audible sound. At first she thought it was just a branch breaking from the wind and rain. Then the sound repeated itself, this time accompanied by a soft, tired ‘meow’.

‘Hold up! It think I heard a cat!’

‘What? Where? Did it sound like Marco?’ Angela whirled around and frantically started to look around.

Fareeha squinted her eyes and looked closer for the source of the sound. Gasping, she reached through the branches and pulled a disgruntled, breathing, fat ball of cat hair and leaves out of the bush.  
‘Marco!’ Angela exclaimed, opening her arms and running towards them at full speed. She pressed the cat to her face, ignoring its soaked fur and the dirt in it. ‘I’m so glad you found him!’   
She suddenly stepped forward, breaching the distance between them and wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Still holding the cat firmly with her left arm, she pressed her cheek to her chest and laughed. ‘Thank you so much!’

Fareeha had trouble breathing all of sudden. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks. ‘Y-yeah! No problem at all! I’m glad we found him too.’ Taking her lack of movement as a sign of discomfort, Angela stepped back and blushed. ‘Sorry. I got a bit excited there.’ Trying her best to hide her disappointment at her letting go, Fareeha reassured here that it was no problem at all.

‘Oh! You’re injured!’ Angela grabbed her arm and turned it so see could see the shallow scratches.  
‘Huh? Oh, I must’ve gotten those from that bush.’ She shrugged and laughed it off. ‘Don’t worry about it, they’re not deep anyways.’ Angela shook her head with a determined look on her face. ‘It’s my fault you’re even out here in the first place! At least let me disinfect them. I’m a doctor, it won’t take long.’

Nodding, she walked with Angela to the door and held it open so she could step inside with Marco in her arms. She really didn’t care about the wounds on her arm, but she was curious to see Angela’s apartment. It turned out to be surprisingly clean, for someone who struck her as quite a chaotic mind. The furniture was clean, except for the cat hairs lying around everywhere and a few cans of coffee and redbull on the tables. 

With a content sigh, she put Marco down and wiped her brow. ’Whew!’ Marco meowed lazily and calmly walked to the couch and started to knead the fabric with his paws. He slowly stretched his fluffy arms and closed his eyes. A soft purring sound gave the room a cozy feel as his chest went up and down in a steady rhythm. 

‘I’m going to get my first aid kit, please make yourself at home. I’ll be right back!’ She ran into another room. Fareeha could hear her footsteps echoing on the wooden floor. She sat down on the couch and absentmindedly stroked Marco’s wet fur. Water from her own hair was dripping onto the couch, but since the cat had already ruined that anyway, she decided that it wasn’t really a problem.

‘You sure are quite the adventurer, huh?’ Marco tilted his head and allowed her to stroke his chin in response. The rain kept streaming down the windows and she thought she saw a brief flash of lightning nearby. A quick glance at the clock hanging on the wall told her that it was 6 am. She always got up around seven am, so it wasn’t worth going to back to bed anymore. Besides, she thought, this had been 100% worth the loss of sleep.

Mercy returned holding bandages, tape and a bunch of weird-smelling bottles in her hands and sat down next to her. She reached out to grab her hand. Fareeha froze for a second, but quickly relaxed again, hoping that Angela hadn’t noticed. Her movements were quick and professional. Her experience as a doctor was clear, even from the simple procedure of disinfecting minor scratches. Fareeha ignored the sting of the alcohol on her skin, focusing instead on the way her hands moved over her arm. Despite the rain outside, it was pretty warm in the room.

‘I hung your jacket out to dry for a bit, I hope you don’t mind.’ ‘Not at all, thank you.’ Fareeha leaned back while Angela put the first aid materials on the coffee table. ‘So,’ she asked, looking around Angela’s apartment, ‘how are you enjoying your stay here? It’s not often that people choose to move into this lovely wreck of a building.’ She softly tapped on the wall with an amused grin on her face.

Angela shrugged. ’It’s all right so far. I moved here because the hospital where I work is only a ten minute drive away from here. Now I can get home a little earlier. Marco still needs to get used to the apartment, though’

‘I can believe that!’ Fareeha laughed, softly patting Marco on the head. He purred, not bothered by what was being said about him. Angela looked at the clock and frowned. ‘I need to start getting ready, my job starts in half an hour.’ Fareeha couldn’t help but be happy with the trace of genuine disappointment in her voice. ‘Can I leave my jacket here to dry? My, uh, dryer broke.’ Fareeha hoped that it wasn’t too obvious that she was looking for an excuse to see her again, but it probably was pretty easy to see. 

‘Yeah! Of course it is! I’ll be home at eight tonight. You know, if you want to pick it up, I’ll be there.’ 

‘Nice!’ Fareeha’s smile was bright and genuine. A few minutes later, Fareeha heard Angela leave for work, the sound of a car motor starting up loud in the otherwise quiet street. She was already looking forward to seeing her again. She looked at the discarded baseball bat on her couch and laughed. At least she had not needed that. Meeting Angela Ziegler had not been what she’d expected to do, but it beat fighting off an intruder any day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! As always, kudos, comments and feedback, both negative and positive are always appreciated!


End file.
